1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a tablet storage and take-out apparatus which contains various kinds of tablets and which fills a vial with tablets necessary to a patient and stores the vial in a storage part so that the vial can be taken out from the storage part.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional tablet storage and take-out apparatus, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-70901, can store vials one by one in a plurality of storage chambers provided in a storage part. The storage part described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-70901 is provided with a pair of holding members which is movable in a horizontal direction perpendicular to a vial take-out direction so as to pinch and hold the vial filled with tablets. It is also disclosed that the storage part is also provided with a sensor for monitoring a space between the pair of holding members in which the vial is held.
However, in the case that a plurality of vials is dispensed per one patient, an operator needs to take-out the vials from the plurality of storage chambers, which increases the risk of forgetting to take-out one or more of the vials. In addition, in the case that the vials of other patient are taken out subsequently, there is also a risk of mistaking the vials. A direction that the vial is inserted between the pair of holding members and a direction that the vial is taken out from the pair of holding members are perpendicular to a direction that the pair of holding members moves. If the pair of holding members is biased hard so as to hold the vial firmly, there has been a disadvantage that the vial cannot be taken out without pulling it out forcibly.